Missing Children Europe

To raise awareness of the 116 000 hotline number for missing children, Missing Children Europe is recreating the number in front of the European Parliament today with donations of children’s second-hand clothing, toys and books, to show what is left behind when a child goes missing. The installation is taking place on Place Luxembourg, outside the European Parliament in Brussels.

The campaign aims to secure funding for the 116 000 hotline number and calls for more awareness of children who run away or are thrown out of home or care institutions. Runaways have consistently been the largest group of children going missing in Europe and constitute 57% of cases in 2017.

Lack of financial resources is the biggest issue faced by the European hotlines for missing children. As allocated funding provided by the European Commission over the past decade comes to an end, Missing Children Europe is now calling on national governments to step in to provide financial support. However more than half of the hotlines report that they do not have access to funding from their national authorities, and one in six actually face opposition from their government.

The 116 000 hotline, created by Missing Children Europe provides emotional, psychological, social, legal and administrative support for missing children and their families to all EU Member States as well as some other European countries. In 2017, they received a total of 189,054 calls related to missing children across the continent, supporting a total of 5,621 missing children.